The Right Kind of Magic
by Books In the Blood
Summary: One night when nine year old Harry Potter is locked in the cupboard under the stairs the house catches on fire and he is saved by a very strange man called the Doctor. Even stranger, an alien is the cause for the fire and Harry finds himself chasing the alien with the Doctor and his whole world is opened up to amazing new possiblities.
1. Chapter 1

Harry couldn't sleep. It wasn't exactly an unheard of problem for him; it was hard to sleep in a small, dark, often too hot or too cold cupboard under the stairs. He'd learned to ignore most of the hurts; he'd been here for as long as he could remember. But tonight, no matter how long he lay on his bed, curled up under the blankets trying to fight the cold, he couldn't drift off.

He was worried and that didn't often happen when he was locked in his cupboard. Usually, he was angry at Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia for shoving him inside and locking him up like an animal in a cage. That should have been the case this time too. His _offense_ this time had been completely not his fault and yet he'd had to suffer for it. He'd been running from some bullies at school after lunch when suddenly he'd not been at school anymore. It was the strangest thing; one moment he'd been running across the playground and the next moment he had been in a field miles from school. He'd not exactly been happy about it even though it had got him away from his tormentors. He'd had to walk all the way back home and by the time he had, it had been well into the evening. The school had called Uncle Vernon and told him that Harry had skipped his classes. Uncle Vernon had shoved him under the stairs and locked him in without any dinner.

Normally, he would be angry and at first he was. He hadn't done anything wrong and his punishment was too harsh. But what worried him was the Dursleys had gone out for the evening, saying they would return at the end of the weekend. Harry hadn't thought that they meant that; surely they wouldn't really leave him in here for two whole days. But as they night grew darker and later and they never returned, Harry worried that they meant it. How could he stay in here for two days without any breaks?

Harry worried about it for a long time; how long he couldn't say because it was so dark. Eventually though, his body tired enough that his began to slow and even the shivering of his body and the rumbling of his stomach couldn't keep him up. He was just at the verge of sleep when he was violently woken again.

Harry heard such a loud crash that it shook the house. He sat bolt upright in bed as the sounds of crashes kept coming, issuing in different places. Harry scrambled to the door but the grate was closed and he couldn't see anything. He kept hearing the sound of something scrapping against the floor and assorted crashes that sounded like something breaking.

"Hello? Is someone out there?" Harry asked in a small voice. He realized that it was a stupid question. Of course someone was in the house and it wasn't his Aunt and Uncle. That meant it had to be burglar or some of other bad person. He shouldn't have said anything; he was only nine and he couldn't fight anyone, small as he was. He instantly got quiet; hoping whoever was ransacking the house wouldn't know he was there and leave him alone.

Harry's heart was thumping against his chest, his pulse in his ears as he heard the sound of the crashing progressing from what sounded like the living room to the kitchen. Harry heard the loud sound of smashing glass; it sounded like one of Aunt Petunia's expensive glass vases or cake stands and he hoped that he didn't get blamed for breaking it.

After the loud crash of glass, it was suddenly quiet. Too quiet….Harry's breath was coming in fast and he resisted the urge to call again. He heard nothing else and though he hoped that whoever it was had gone already, he hadn't heard any doors so he couldn't be sure they had left. Harry sat crossed legged on his bed, as his heartbeat steadied. He'd never go to sleep now so he just sat back and tried to relax.

Harry's heart was almost beating normally again when he began to smell the smoke. At first he thought that maybe it was someone's grill or fire outside. When he began to smell smoke coming up under the door, he knew he was wrong.

Harry rushed to the door as quickly as he could in the door, yanking on the handle with all of his might. He pulled and pushed against the door with his full weight but it was no use; there was no way that he was going to get it open. The smoke was flooding the small space, making his eyes water and his lungs burn.

"Help! Help!" Harry yelled as loud as he could, coughing between calls. The house was going to burn down and he was going to die trapped in this small cupboard! Panic flooded through his veins as he yelled all the louder; at this point he wanted the burglar to hear him. Being kidnaped by a burglar would be better than roasting to death.

Harry pounded on the door until his arms ached; his head swam from the smoke and he knew he was soon going to be in trouble. No was one coming, he thought as he got dizzy and fell to the floor… _no one….._

Harry was slumped on the floor of the cupboard, almost unconscious when suddenly the door was flung open. Harry squinted up at the man standing in the doorway. He was a strange sort of man, the last kind you'd expect to be a burglar or murderer or something. He was tall and skinny, with odd clothes. He wore an old looking jacket even though he was a young man, accented with bright red suspenders and a bowtie. "Are you a burglar?" Harry asked, feeling drowsy as he looked up at the man.

"Nope, I'm the Doctor" the man said brightly. He glanced back toward the kitchen. "Your house is on fire, by the way. Run!"

The strange man grabbed Harry's hand and they took off. Harry didn't know why he trusted this man but he just felt an instinctive trust when he looked at him. Plus, he'd just saved his life so what choice did he have but to trust him?

Harry and the Doctor ran down the hall and toward the front door. When he looked behind him, he could see a fire raging in the kitchen, smoke billowing throughout the house. He felt frozen for a moment but the Doctor pulled him, making him run.

As soon as they burst from the house and into the front yard, Harry gulped the clean, cold night air happily. He coughed a lot but he felt better. "What just happened? How did the house catch on fire?" Harry asked. He looked up from where he had his hands on his knees coughing but he looked up, the Doctor was already taking off.

"Hey! Wait!" Harry said, taking off after him.

The Doctor was running around the house to the back, a strange device in his hand shining green light. "Can't wait…I've got to catch…!" the Doctor said. He shone his strange deceive around the back window that led into the kitchen where smoke was rushing out.

"Hey, are you the one that broke into my house?" Harry asked, catching his breath beside the Doctor as he appeared to scan the wall.

"I didn't break into your house. A Zorbin did" The Doctor said. He looked at his device critically before taking off into the next door neighbors' yard.

"What's a Zorbin?" Harry asked as he ran after the Doctor, the cold ground under him making him wish he had worn shoes.

The Doctor looked around into the night air, his breath coming out like a cloud. "There! There it is!" The Doctor pointed toward a huge shrub and ran to it.

Harry thought he must be seeing things. The creature he saw burst from the bush looked like a cross between a dragon and a cat, both furry and scaly and incredibly ugly. It hissed and fire came from its mouth, a burning a patch in the grass as it ran. What was that thing? Harry had never seen anything like it; he was both scared and excited.

"That thing set fire to the house?" Harry said as he ran along the grass of several homes in Private Drive, trying to catch the odd creature.

"Yes…..he didn't mean to though. It's only a baby, you see. Can't control its fire yet" The Doctor explained mildly.

"So…..it's like a dragon?" Harry asked. He couldn't imagine dragons existed; how cool would that be?

"No, I told you….it's a Zorbin" the Doctor explained.

The Zorbin dove into a drain pipe at the end of someone's drive and the Doctor crouched down at the end. "You…..uh, what's you name again?" The Doctor asked.

He hadn't asked before but Harry didn't point that out. "I'm Harry" he said.

"Alright, then Harry. You stand at the other end and catch him if he comes out your end" The Doctor explained.

Harry crouched at the end of the pipe and looked in. He could see the small creature curled in a ball in the middle. "Is it dangerous?" Harry asked. It seemed a bit late to be asking.

"No….well…not much" The Doctor said.

Harry looked over the pipe at the Doctor. "So, why have I never heard of a Zorbin?" Harry asked.

"They don't have them on your planet. Oh….yes!" The Doctor's face exploded with excitement as the Zorbin rushed into his arms. The Doctor cradled it like a puppy, petting its head. It began to making purring noises, smoke coming from its mouth happily.

Harry was trying to wrap his mind around what he thought he heard. "My planet?" Harry asked. "This is the only planet, right? At least with people on it. I mean…only crazy people believe in aliens, right?"

Harry was beginning to suspect that the Doctor _was_ a crazy person, especially when he grinned wildly at Harry's statement. "Then I must be crazy' the Doctor said, "Always knew I was…..you're not the first person to point that out"

The Doctor began to walk across the neighborhood, petting the Zorbin and giggling like a child. Harry should have just gone to the neighbors and called the fire department; that would have been the responsible thing to do. But Harry did the irresponsible thing; he followed the very strange Doctor who he had just met and knew nothing about.

"So, you believe in aliens?" Harry asked the Doctor, trotting up beside him.

The Doctor smiled proudly at him. "I am an alien." He said.

It took several seconds before Harry could begin to walk again. An alien? Surely he hadn't really just met an alien. "You can't be an alien…..you don't look like an alien" Harry said as he and the Doctor came up to a big, blue box that said Police Public Call Box. He was a bit relived; maybe he would _need_ a police man.

"Let me guess; you expected green skin and a big head? Come on Harry, be original; you're a smart boy, right?" the Doctor said as he opened the police box door.

Harry felt annoyed for a moment but didn't argue the point. "Well…I didn't think an alien would look like a human" he tried to argue. A second later, all arguments vanished from his head.

Instead of stepping into a small wooden box like he expected, Harry found himself in what he could only describe as a space ship. On the inside, it was much larger than the outside, full of flashing lights and color; it was awe inspiring and amazing. Harry felt his eyes go wide and his mouth hang open. The Doctor stood next to him, still holding the Zorbin and watching him with a grin.

"It's…..it's…" Harry started but seemed to have a hard time finding the words that he wanted to use.

"Perhaps you're searching for something about its size being much larger than it appears?" the Doctor asked, almost hopefully.

"It's a space ship" Harry finally managed to say. He couldn't believe he was actually in a real, live space ship. Part of him was sure that he must still be in his cold, dark cupboard, dreaming this all.

"Well, technically I guess" the Doctor said, sounding a bit disappointed. "But it's so much more than that. TARDIS…time and relative dimensions in space. She's quite a beauty and all mine"

The Doctor ran his hand affectionately along the console like she was a person. "She can take you anywhere and any when in time and space." He said proudly.

Harry's eyes shot toward the Doctor. "You mean, like time travel?" he said hopefully.

The Doctor smiled. "Exactly like time travel" he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Harry's head was spinning. All of his life, he had always hoped there was more; more than the Dursleys, more that Private Drive, more than his dull, humdrum existence. He wanted so desperately to know that what he had wasn't all there was and the Doctor and his TARDIS was proof of that. The universe was bigger than he could possibly imagine and he couldn't wait to see it.

"But, first, we have to take this little guy back home" the Doctor said, patting the Zorbin and walking to the console to press some buttons.

"Can I come with you?" Harry asked before he stopped himself. He thought about the house burning down, his family coming home to it…he didn't know what would happen to him then. He didn't want to stick around to find out.

The Doctor hesitated. "I'd love for you to come with me. But…wouldn't you're parents miss you?" he asked.

Harry felt like he had been punched in the stomach but he knew that it was a valid question for anyone that didn't know he was an orphan. "I don't have parents. I live with my aunt and uncle" Harry said, looking away from the Doctor before looking back. He knew he'd see sympathy in his eyes; people always looked that way when they found out.

The Doctor recovered quickly. "Well, I wouldn't want to take you from them. Most guardians don't take kindly to that" he said.

Harry began to feel panic rising in his chest at the thought that the Doctor would leave him here and he'd have to deal with Uncle Vernon's wrath. He could already imagine the veins on his head popping out, his face turning red as he began to scream. "Please, Doctor; take me with you" Harry said, trying hard not to sound desperate. "I promise I'll be good and I'll help you. When Uncle Vernon comes back and he and Aunt Petunia see that the house burn down they'll probably do much worse than lock me in a cupboard all weekend."

The Doctor paused, his whole expression darkening. "You mean to tell me just now, you were locked in the cupboard and that's why you couldn't get out?"

Harry felt guilty for a second as he saw the Doctor getting angry; he never told anyone about that before and he knew he wasn't supposed to. "Well…yeah" Harry said hesitantly. "That's what they do when they get mad. When they come back home and see the house has burned down they won't believe me when I say it was a Zorbin; they'll think I'm just lying and I'll be in huge trouble."

Harry could see anger like a wave flash through the Doctor's eyes. He thought maybe he would yell or scream but he didn't; it passed and then he was smiling. "Well, then...I would love to have you as my traveling companion, Harry" the Doctor said.

The Doctor put the Zorbin down on the grown and motioned for Harry to come stand next to him. Harry's heart was soaring with excitement so much he felt he might explode. He hardly dared to believe that he was really going to escape the confines of the Dursleys' house but that was exactly what the Doctor was suggesting.

As Harry came to stand next to the Doctor, he began to press buttons and leavers on the console that made the TARDIS come to life with light and sound and possibilities. So many possibilities….. The Doctor was grinning widely and Harry felt his heart burst with excitement as they Doctor turned toward him and spoke.

"So, Harry….where in all of time and space do you want to go?"


	2. Chapter 2

Harry couldn't help but feel excited; the Doctor's face lit up with happiness as he asked the question and Harry could only be overwhelmed with possibilities.

"All of time? You mean we could go anywhere?" Harry asked, hardly daring to believe it. As slyly as he could he pinched his arm; he had been so sure that he had been dreaming. These sorts of things didn't happen to him. He was just Harry Potter, too small with untidy hair, an orphan with no friends. He wasn't that kind of kid that got to travel through space if that was something that was possible.

The Doctor smiled widely. "Yes" he said, hand gesturing wildly as he paced around, as if he just couldn't stay still. "Any place, any time. Where ever you want to go, that's where we will go." He said patting the TARDIS console, as if proud of the machine.

Harry thought about all of the stuff he could see; he could go to Mars…..he could see dinosaurs…he could meet aliens of different worlds. It was all so amazing and brilliant that he could believe it. But really, there was only one thing that he really wanted to see.

Harry felt a little nervous asking the Doctor and worrying he'd say no; he also felt very nervous thinking that he might say yes. "Do you think we could go back in time and see my parents?" Harry asked, looking at the Doctor nervously.

The Doctor's face fell; he didn't look happy anymore but seemed deep in thought the way that adults often did when they were about to say no.

"You see, my parents died when I was only a baby so I never really got to know them" Harry explained, hoping to change the Doctor's mind. "If you can't do it, that's okay…..I'd just thought I'd ask."

Already, Harry felt his hope in his chest deflating like a popped balloon. It had been a long shot anyway, really….

"No, I can do it" the Doctor said quickly, though he still looked troubled. "I can take you to see your parents. But Harry…this is very important for you to understand; you can't talk to them or interact with them in any way. We'd have to make sure that no one saw us; you can't be a part of your own past and your own time stream. If you were seen by your younger self or your parents bad things could happen."

Some of the hope that had fizzled out was reigniting inside his heart quickly. He would really get to see his parents! It was almost too good to believe. "I promise I won't do anything I'm not supposed to. I'll just look, I promise" Harry said, feeling his excitement running through him but trying not to sound too desperate to the Doctor.

Still, the Doctor seemed to hesitate a bit. "It may be a little harder than you can imagine" he said, "Once you see someone you've longed to meet for so long, it may be too hard to resist the urge to go to them. I've seen it happen to others before. I'm just trying to prepare you because the last time I took someone to see one of their parents, things went very badly."

"I understand" Harry said quickly, trying to mask his overwhelming excitement and trying not to sound as if he were just dismissing the Doctor's worries, "I know it will be hard. But I promise…I really do…..I won't mess it up"

Harry watched the Doctor as he walked around in circles, looking at the floor as if it was written with words that he had a hard time reading. Harry felt himself holding his breath; meeting the Doctor was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Harry tried to remain optimistic but when he was honest with himself the truth was that nothing good ever happened to him. He wasn't about to mess up traveling with the Doctor. Already he couldn't imagine how horrible he would feel going back to the Dursleys and whatever burned up wreckage was left of Private Drive.

The Doctor finally stopped studying the floor and looked up at Harry. Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling. "You know what?" The Doctor said, smiling widely and rubbing his hands together excitedly. "I trust you. Harry. Something about you tells me you can handle it. You seem to be made of strong stuff; I feel you are mature, especially for someone that can't be more than…seven?"

Harry felt pride at the Doctor saying he was strong but it was slightly ruined by his saying he looked seven. He small but really…. "I'm nine, actually" Harry said, trying to stand up a bit taller.

"Oh, well….I'm not so good on human ages I guess" the Doctor said, acting a bit embarrassed. "I mean, you wouldn't probably guess I'm over 900? Right?"

Harry wouldn't have guessed that the Doctor was 900 at all. Once more he was shaken a bit by the realization that the Doctor was really very alien. "Yeah, I probably would have guessed 20" Harry said, to which the Doctor gave him a pat on the back that almost made him topple over.

"See Harry? We click" The Doctor said brightly though Harry wasn't really sure what that meant. He watched the Doctor walk over to the console of the TARDIS, pressing tons of multicolored buttons.

"Alright, Harry…one trip to your parents coming up" The Doctor said, giving Harry an excited look. "So, who are we looking for?"

Harry felt like cold water had been thrown on him and seeped into his body but it also felt good. "Lily and James" Harry said. It felt so strange saying his parents' names. The extent of his knowledge of his parents had always been that they had died in a car crash when he was a baby. He had learned early on not to ask questions; Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always looked like he was personally trying to ruin their lives when he did so he kept his curiosities to himself.

The Doctor pressed a bunch of other buttons and looked at a small screen intently before looking back up at Harry. "Here we go. Hold on tight, the TARDIS is a bit of rough ride!"

Harry quickly grabbed the railing next to the console, fully expecting to be tossed around like an amusement park ride. The TARDIS shook and tossed as it made a whirling, windy sound; it wasn't as bad as Harry thought it would be but he still held on white knuckled until the Doctor said, "Okay, here we are!"

Harry couldn't believe it; he held onto the railing for several more seconds before letting go. That was it? It only took a few seconds to travel back in time? It was so hard to believe but the Doctor was already running down the ramp from the console to the door, so Harry was sure it must be true.

"Okay, Harry" The Doctor said excitedly, his hand on the doorknob, "Outside that door is Godric's Hollow, home to the young Lily and James Potter and their baby son, Harry, July 5, 1981"

Harry had practically ran down the ramp but as he got to the end, he felt himself freeze at the door. If it was really July 5, 1981 that would make Harry almost a year old. If that were true, it must be close to the time his parents died. He didn't know the exact day of their death; Aunt Petunia never told him and he certainly had never seen their graves. The idea that he was actually going to see his parents, alive and hopefully happy, as Harry so wished they could be now, was a bit overwhelming. His heart was racing inside his chest and his whole body felt suddenly huge and impossible to move.

Harry stared at the door for what felt like forever, whiling himself to move. When he looked at the Doctor, he was just standing there, his face relaxed and calm; he didn't push Harry or try to hurry him for which Harry was grateful. He seemed to know how hard this was for Harry without him having to say so. And Harry was glad; he didn't think he could explain why this was so hard when he had wanted it for so long.

Harry took a deep breath, willing himself not to shake as he looked up at the Doctor. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go" he said. He was glad that when it came out, it actually sounded strong.

The Doctor smiled, opening the TARDIS' door. "After you" he said, looking excited on Harry's behalf.

With as much effort as a single step had ever taken, Harry stepped out of the TARDIS and into the bright, warm July sunshine. He felt disoriented, looking past the sun and into the street. It seemed so normal…it was just an ordinary street with people driving cars, walking on the sidewalk, kids playing in the gardens. It wasn't a familiar street but if Harry didn't know any better he would think there was nothing unusual about it. He certainly wouldn't have thought that they'd gone back in time eight years. He wouldn't have known he was now in a world that included his parents.

Harry and the Doctor were standing on the sidewalk across the street from several small, quaint little houses, partially hidden from view by a large tree when Harry, still feeling frozen from the shock of it all, felt the Doctor give a bit of a start next to him.

"Look, Harry…..I do believe that that man there might be of some interest to you" the Doctor said, pointing across the street to a man walking up to one of the houses. From the back, Harry hadn't even noticed him; he just appeared to be another of the many people going about their business on the beautiful summer day. But when he turned the corner Harry felt his breath catch in his chest, feeling for a moment like he was suffocating.

There was nothing to make Harry sure that that man was his father; nothing other than that they had the exact same hair, walked the exact same way and that gut feeling Harry had that he knew those eyes…..it was really nothing but it was everything. Harry felt his heart beating out of control, his stomach jump up and down like he was going to be sick and his throat clench like it did when you were going to cry though Harry was sure he wasn't going to. He felt sick and strange but excited all the same…..He was seeing his dad for the time since he was a baby.

James Potter…even though Harry was still a kid he knew that his dad looked exactly like he would if he were grown. For a moment he could hardly believe that he was really watching his own dad; he wouldn't believe it all if they didn't look so similar. As he watched his dad walk down the sidewalk and up to a small house, what must have been his own home as a baby, and disappear inside Harry could see why the Doctor warned him about not being seen; he had to admit that the irrational, desperate need to run across the street to his dad was overwhelming. He knew that his dad wouldn't know him; even if he did he would think he was going crazy. But that didn't stop Harry from just wanting to touch him, to talk to him, to have him look back and acknowledge him for a minuet as his son.

"Would you like to have a closer look Harry? Perhaps if we take a peak in one of the windows, we might find a tiny version of you in there? That tree over there looks like good cover for two time travelers?" the Doctor asked.

The Doctor's light tone snapped Harry out of his reprieve and made it easier to swallow down the huge lump that seemed to be forming in his throat. "Yeah, let's go" Harry said, nodding vigorously.

Charging into the street and over to the back garden of Harry's babyhood home, Harry was not unaware of all of the stares. While they had managed to escape notice in the corner on the street so far, walking into traffic made them visible enough that people didn't seem to care they were openly staring at an old fashioned dressed young man and a small boy who was wearing nothing but his pyjamas and no shoes. Harry made a mental note to ask the Doctor if he could get some proper clothes once they returned to the TARDIS but it flitted out of his mind quickly when they reached the back garden of the house and Harry realized with a flutter that he was about to see his dad again and possibly his mum for the first time.

Following the Doctor's lead, Harry ducked behind the large tree in the garden, cautiously peering around until he could see the window. When he could see what was behind that window, mere feet from him, Harry felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. His belly ached and his breath was instantly taken from him and though all of this was a bad sensation, he didn't want it to ever end if it meant that he kept getting to see what was going on in the house in front of him.

Harry would have given just about anything to be able to hear his parents' voices; he internally cursed the fact that the window was shut. But now, he would just have to be content with the fact that he could see them and that was more than he could have ever dreamed possible only hours ago.

Standing in the sitting room in front of him was the prettiest woman Harry was sure that he had ever seen; he was sure that small, baby version of him in her arms thought the same thing as he stared at her and laughed with a gummy, baby grin. She had gorgeous red hair and bright green eyes…eyes just like his. From where he was sitting, he could see a wide, unbelievably sunny smile on her face as she said something he'd heard once but could never remember to his baby self. Lily Potter…his _mum._ Harry was glad that the Doctor was silent beside him because he was sure that he couldn't have spoken at the moment if his life depended on it. As he watched his mum envelope the baby Harry in her arms, the Harry watching from the outside felt as if something inside him that he couldn't name was breaking. He would have given anything to have burst into the room and felt his mum's arms around him, just once. What must it be like to feel arms around you in a hug of true, unconditional love? Harry, who hadn't been touched like that since was an infant, didn't know.

As Harry's mum held his baby self, his dad walked into the room and suddenly Harry found that the image was getting harder and harder to see for all the blurry water now in his eyes. His mum's face lit up at the sight of her husband and she rushed forward to embrace him, baby Harry happily sandwiched in the middle of them.

Harry had never truly seen a display of what love was supposed to be. Even at his young age he was beginning to suspect that there were really no truly happy families; certainly the Dursleys never taught him anything of love. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon seemed more like two people stuck together against their will than husband and wife, and while he supposed that they loved Dudley like most parents loved their children, Dudley didn't seem much to return their sentiments. He'd been rejected and neglected his whole life; at best life was empty and at worst it hurt. But this…..this little family, his little family, that he would never know again, they knew the meaning of true love.

It wasn't long before the Doctor had quietly excused himself with the excuse that he had to check something in the TARDIS. While Harry didn't know anything about the TARDIS even he thought the mumbled excuse seemed made up; both of them knew that and neither said anything to which Harry was grateful. Though the Doctor seemed strange in many ways, he seemed to pick on some things very easily, and allowing Harry a moment alone to mourn his parents privately was one of them.

Harry was glad that the Doctor had left him; it had been all that he could to do keep his eyes dry. He was sure that the Doctor would have understood but even so he was still trying to seem grown up and responsible; the Doctor could always take him back to the Durseleys since he did have a time machine and that wasn't something he wanted to happen at all. But he supposed the fact that the Doctor left him alone in a strange time mere feet from his parents was a pretty good vote of confidence that he trusted him not to do anything stupid.

Harry didn't know how long he stood there silently watching but when he wandered back to the TARDIS the warm summer sunshine had long disappeared behind the horizon. It was long after he'd watched his mum and dad talk in the sitting room while baby Harry played on the carpet, long after they disappeared into a kitchen he couldn't see for dinner, after they had returned to watch telly in the sitting room again, the light in the room disappearing and being replaced by the soft telly glow as baby Harry fell asleep in his mum's arms before he wrench his way back through the now quiet streets to where the TARDIS was parked. He no longer felt the pressing pain of needing to cry but he felt strangely empty and that was much worse.

When Harry knocked on the door of the TARDIS it swung open immediately and though he had expected to find the Doctor at once staring at him, he saw him standing by the console tinkering with it, as if the TARDIS had a mind of its own and had opened for him.

The Doctor glanced up from the console slightly, keeping his focus mostly on his ship for which Harry was grateful. "Glad to see you back, Harry" the Doctor said, giving him a small smile of recognition.

Harry walked up to the console and lowered himself into the seat there, suddenly feeling as if he had run a million miles. He was so thankful that he had gotten to see his parents; it still all felt like a beautiful dream that he would soon wake from. But he didn't want the Doctor to ask him if he was alright because he wasn't; seeing his parents was something unlike he'd ever experienced and though he was happy he'd done it, he wouldn't be quite 'okay' for a while.

The Doctor, displaying his surprising tact for being an oddly dressed alien, didn't ask him if he was okay. "Would you like me to show you to your room?" the Doctor asked with a grin.

"My room?" Harry asked, unsure if he had heard the Doctor correctly. If there were bedrooms on the TARDIS them it must be even bigger than it looked, even from here.

"Yes, your room of course" the Doctor said, coming around the console to where Harry was sitting, "If you're going to be my traveling companion you're going to need your own room. I know how you humans need your sleep."

Despite all of the mixed emotions that he had been feeling with seeing his parents, Harry couldn't deny he felt a burst of excitement at the thought he'd get his own room. He'd never had a room, just a cupboard under the stairs. Unlike number four private drive, Harry belonged in the TARDIS.

"Sure" Harry said, barely containing his excitement.

The Doctor grinned, sensing Harry's excitement. "Then, Harry my boy, follow me right this way."

 _Thanks for reading! I did not plan on writing this chapter; originally the story was a one-shot only. But you guys were so interested it sparked my creativity! Again, I dont plan another chapter but who knows? These two are really growing on me!_


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